The English Renaissance

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The English Renaissance

• 1485-1625

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The Coming of the Renaissance

• The Renaissance was a flowering of literary,
  artistic and intellectual development that began
  in Italy in the fourteenth century.
• It was inspired by the arts and scholarship of
  ancient Greece and Rome, which were rediscovered
  during the Crusades

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Key Characteristics of the Renaissance

• Religious devotion of the Middle Ages gave way to
  interest in the human beings place on this earth
• Universities introduced a new curriculum, the
  humanities, including history, geography, poetry,
  and languages
• Invention of printing made books more available
• More writers began using the vernacular

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Figures of the Renaissance

• Mostly Italians
• Dante, author of The Divine Comedy
• Petrarch, wrote lyric poetry in the form of
  sonnets
• Leonardo Da Vinci, a painter, sculptor,
  architect, and scientist
• Da Vinci typifies a Renaissance mana person of
  broad education and interests whose curiosity
  knew no bounds.

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The Age of Exploration

• Renaissance thirst for knowledge lead to a great
  burst of exploration.
• Crusades opened routes to Asia soon monopolized
  by Italian merchants.
• Explorers from other nations searched for all-sea
  routes aided by compass and advances in
  astronomy.
• Culminated in Columbuss discovery of the New
  World in 1492--colonization

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England in the Age of Exploration

• 1497Italian-born John Cabot reached Newfoundland
  (an island off the coast of Canada) and perhaps
  the mainland
• Cabot laid the basis for future English claims in
  North America.

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The Protestant Reformation Questioning the
Catholic Church

• A growing sense of nationalism led many to
  question the authority of the church.
• Complaints
• the sale of indulgences
• payment to the church (like taxes)
• church leaders favored Mediterranean powers over
  northerly countries
• the educated questioned the Church teachings and
  hierarchy

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Erasmus

• Dutch thinker whose edition of the New Testament
  raised questions about standard interpretations
  of the Bible.
• Focused attention on issues of morality and
  religion
• Morality and religion became the central concerns
  of the English Renaissance

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Martin Luther

• Erasmus paved the way for the split in the Roman
  Catholic Church in 1517.
• German monk Martin Luther nailed a list of
  dissenting beliefs (ninety-five theses) to the
  door of a German church.
• The intent was to reform the Catholic Church, but
  actually divided the church and introducing
  Protestantism.

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Results of the Protestant Reformation

• Swept through Europe
• Frequent wars between rulers with different
  beliefs
• Persecution of Catholics and Protestants
• Division of ProtestantsLutherans and Calvinists
  (Puritans and Presbyterian sects)

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Tudor England

• Tudor dynasty ruled from 1485-1603.
• Time of stability and economic expansion
• London a metropolis of 180,000 people
• Many saw the changes as a threat to the old
  familiar ways
• Feared new outbreaks of civil strife (War of the
  Roses)

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Henry VII

• First Tudor monarch
• Inherited an England depleted by civil war
• Before his death in 1509, he rebuilt the treasury
  and established law and order.
• Henry VII restored the prestige of the monarchy
  and set the stage for his successors.

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Signature of Henry VII
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Henry VII Gallery
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Henry VIII

• Catholic (even wrote a book against Luther)
• Relationship with the Pope did not last
• Marriage to Catherine of Aragon produced no male
  heir
• Henry tried to obtain an annulment to marry Anne
  Boleyn
• The Pope refused, but Henry married anyway

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Henry VIII Gallery
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Henrys Break with the Church

• Henrys defiance led to an open break with the
  Roman Catholic Church.
• The Act of Supremacy (1534) gave Henry full
  control of the Church in England and severed all
  ties with Rome.
• Henry became the head of the Anglican Church (the
  new Church of England).
• He seized Church property and dissolved the
  monasteries.

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The Aftermath

• Henry used ruthless measures to suppress
  opposition.
• He even had his former friend and advisor, Thomas
  More, executed, because More refused to renounce
  his faith.
• Henry married six times.
• His first two marriages (Catherine and Anne)
  produced two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth.
• His third wife, Jane Seymour, bore him a son,
  Edward, who was still a frail child when Henry
  died in 1547.

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The Six Wives of Henry VIII
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Edward VI

• Became King at 9 died a 15 (1553)
• Parliamentary acts during his reign changed
  Englands religious practices and sent England on
  its way to becoming a Protestant nation.
• English replaced Latin in church.
• The Anglican prayer book, Book of Common Prayer,
  became required in public worship.

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Edward VI gallery
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Bloody Mary

• Mary I, Edwards half sister a Catholic
• Mary restored Catholic practices and papal
  authority to the Church of England.
• Mary married her Spanish cousin, Phillip II,
  making England a part of the powerful Spanish
  state. (During this period of nationalism, many
  found her acts unpatriotic)
• Mary also persecuted Protestants she ordered the
  execution of some 200 Protestants during her
  reign, strengthening anti-Catholic sentiment in
  England

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Signature of Mary I
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Mary I Gallery
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Elizabeth I

• After Marys five year reign, her half-sister,
  Elizabeth came to the throne.
• Elizabeth was the last of the Tudors, dying
  unmarried and childless.
• Elizabeth received a Renaissance education,
  became a patron of the arts, and Elizabethan came
  to describe the English Renaissance at its height.

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Elizabeth and the Church

• Ended religious turmoil
• Reestablished the monarchs supremacy in the
  Church of England
• Restored the Book of Common Prayer
• Instituted a policy of religious moderation

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Foreign Affairs

• France and Spain, Englands two greatest rivals,
  often worked with Catholic factions in England.
• Both nations fought to dominate England.
• Elizabeth and her counselors played one side
  against the other, using offers of marriage as
  bait.
• This cleverness allowed England a period of peace
  and allowed commercial and maritime interests to
  prosper.

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Mary, Queen of Scots

• Elizabeths Catholic cousin, Mary Stuart queen
  of Scotland by birth and next in line to the
  British throne (granddaughter of Henry VII)
• Catholics did not recognize Henry VIIIs marriage
  to Anne Boleyn, Elizabeths mother, and
  considered Mary Stuart the queen.
• Mary was a prisoner of England for 19 years and
  the center of numerous plots on Elizabeths life.
  
• Eventually Mary was convicted of plotting to
  murder Elizabeth and went to the block in 1587, a
  Catholic martyr.
• In my end is my beginningMarys death led
  Catholic Spain to declare war on England.

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Elizabeths Signature
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Elizabeth I Gallery
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England vs. Spain

• Spain rejected English claims in America and
  resented the fact that English privateers had
  been attacking and plundering Spanish ships.
• Privateers like John Hawkins and Francis Drake
  operated on their own, but were really under
  the authority of Queen Elizabeth.

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The Spanish Armada

• After Marys execution, King Phillip II prepared
  a Spanish armada of 130 warships to attack
  England.
• In 1588, English sailors defeated the Armada in
  the English Channel.
• This event marked the decline of Spain and the
  rise of England as a great sea power

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From Tudors to Stuarts

• Elizabeths death marked the end of the Tudor
  dynasty.
• To avoid civil strife, Elizabeth named King James
  VI of Scotland her successor (son of Mary
  Stuart).
• James was a Protestant.
• The reign of James I (1603-1625) is now known as
  the Jacobean Era

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King James I

• Strong supporter of the arts
• Furthered Englands position as a world power
• Sponsored the establishment of the first English
  colony in AmericaJamestown
• Believed in divine right monarchy and had
  contempt for Parliament (power struggle)
• Persecuted Puritans (House of Commons)Jamess
  persecution prompted a group of Puritans to
  establish Plymouth colony in 1621

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The English Renaissance

• Architects designed beautiful mansions
• Composers wrote new hymns for Anglican service
  and popularized the English madrigal
• Renaissance painters and sculptors moved to
  England (Hans Holbein the Younger was court
  painter to Henry VIII)
• Opened public schools (like private secondary
  schools today)
• Improvements at Oxford and Cambridge

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Elizabethan Poetry

• Perfected the sonnet and experimented with other
  poetic forms
• Philip Sidney wrote the first Elizabethan sonnet
  cycle (a series of sonnets that fit together as a
  story)Astrophel and Stella
• Edmund Spenser wrote a long epic, The Faerie
  Queen, in complex nine-line units now called
  Spenserian stanzas
• Christopher Marlowe popularized pastoral verse
  (idealizes the rural life)

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The Poetry of William Shakespeare

• Shakespeare changed the pattern and rhyme scheme
  of the Petrarchan sonnet, creating the English,
  or Shakespearean, sonnet

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Elizabethan Drama

• Reintroduced tragediesplays in which disaster
  befalls a hero or heroine
• Reintroduced comediesplays in which a humorous
  situation leads to a happy resolution.
• Began using blank verse
• Christopher Marlowe was the first major
  Elizabethan dramatist.
• Marlowe may have rivaled Shakespeare as Englands
  greatest playwright had he lived past thirty.

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Christopher Marlowe
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Sir Walter Raleigh (ca. 1552-1618) The Nymph's
Reply
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He was not of an age but for all time.

• Shakespeare began his involvement with the
  theater as an actor.
• By 1592, he was a popular playwright whose works
  had been performed at Elizabeths court.
• After the Globe Theater was built in 1599, many
  of his plays were performed there.
• Shakespeare wrote thirty-seven plays nine
  tragedies, several comedies, ten histories, and a
  number of play classified as tragic comedies.

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Shakespeare Festival - Clemson University
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Elizabethan and Jacobean Prose

• Philip Sidneys Defense of Poesie is one of the
  earliest works of English literary criticism.
• Thomas Nashes Unfortunate Traveler, a fictional
  adventure, was a forerunner of the novel.
• Walter Raleigh wrote his History of the World
  during his confinement in the Tower of London
  (was beheaded for allegedly plotting against
  James I)
• The leading prose writer of the time was Francis
  Bacon.

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The King James Bible

• The most monumental prose achievement of the
  English Renaissance
• Commissioned by King James on the advice of
  Protestant clergymen
• Took fifty-four scholars three years to complete
• Is now among the most widely quoted an
  influential works in the English language